


reach back through the past

by avosettas



Series: human concepts [3]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Animal Death, Hetalia Countries Using Human Names, M/M, Vampires, the sad truth of immortality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:54:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22089724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avosettas/pseuds/avosettas
Summary: “My friend Andrei - he found you. He doesn’t know who it was, but it was a vampire. Said you almost bled to death, but…”
Relationships: Denmark/Norway (Hetalia)
Series: human concepts [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1752607
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	reach back through the past

**Author's Note:**

> someone mentioned that they wanted to know about the pasts of these guys so i've been working on this for literally like. TWO MONTHS.  
> valravns are from danish folklore and i got my info about them from [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valravn)!  
> tumblr @asriells

Sigurd wakes in darkness and silence, save for light seeping in under a door and the faint crash of plates in the sink. Everything seems far away and what little he can make out in the darkness is blurry. 

A digital clock next to his head reads 6:13 in the evening, glowing green. Sigurd drifts back to sleep. 

~

“Is he going to be okay?” The question is whispered, punctuated strangely by Matthias’s glances up the stairs. The man across from him sucks on his top lip and leans back dangerously far on the old wooden kitchen chair. 

“...He’ll be fine.” Andrei says finally, scratching the side of his head a bit. “But…” 

“He’s gonna be like you.” It isn’t a question. Andrei looks up, ashamed, but Matthias merely looks sad, not angry. 

“Yeah.” Andrei makes eye contact, finally. “What about you?” 

Matthias shrugs and plucks a dark feather from his hair, one that Andrei could swear hadn’t been there earlier. “I’ll be around. I should probably check on Sig,” he says, suddenly changing the subject. 

Andrei nods. “Call me when he’s awake.” 

~

When he wakes next, Sigurd recognizes the room as his own. The blinds haven’t been opened, but it’s light enough outside that the room is bright anyway. He rolls his head sideways to look at the clock on the nightstand, ignoring the crick in his neck as he does. It’s morning. 

The crick doesn’t go away when he stretches, but as he reaches up to feel his neck, the door opens. 

“Don’t, uh, touch that, babe.” Matthias looks disheveled and awkward - black feathers sticking every which way out of his blonde hair, wearing boxers with a button down shirt. “Needs to heal,” he clarifies at Sigurd’s glare, setting down a bowl of oatmeal on the nightstand next to the clock. 

“...What happened?”

“You got attacked,” Matthias responds quietly, reaching up to smooth over some of Sigurd’s hair. “By - by something like me.”

“Wouldn’t I be dead if that had happened?” Sigurd snorts, reaching for the oatmeal. His masters is in folklore; he doesn't need it to know that valravns don't let their prey live.

“No, no, like… a creature like me, but not a valravn like me.” Again, the hand smoothing his hair, though this time it slips to the crook of his neck. Sigurd cringes a bit, ticklish, as Matthias’s hand rests just over the crick. 

“What kind of creature?” Matthias only frowns and runs his hand over - it isn’t a crick. There’s something on Sigurd’s neck. “Matthias. What kind of creature?” 

“My friend Andrei - he found you. He doesn’t know who it was, but it was a vampire. Said you almost bled to death, but…” 

Sigurd raises an eyebrow wordlessly. 

“He thought it would be kinder for you to die, but he didn’t feel he could make that decision.” Matthias meets his eyes. Sigurd sees only pity. “You’ll live forever. He’s been around since before the Black Death.”

“That - can’t you, also?” Self-consciously, Matthias pulls a clump of feathers from his hair. 

“Valravns only live forever if we eat the heart of a child.” Sigurd hears the unspoken words, _And I will not stoop to that level_ , shown only in his eyes, but there's... regret there, too. regret and sorrow.

“So I’m just going to be alone.” 

Matthias doesn't respond, resting his head on Sigurd’s collarbone instead. Sigurd eventually puts down his oatmeal and then wraps his arms around him loosely. 

“I can’t stay here,” He says finally, hanging his head to rest his chin in Matthias’s hair. “I’ll end up hurting someone.” 

“I think Andrei drinks mostly from rodents and shit.” 

“If I hurt you or Emil I would never forgive myself,” Sigurd replies with a sigh. “And I’m so thirsty.”

“We’ll make it work.” 

~ 

Andrei teaches him to catch mice and squirrels with strange whistling patterns and his bare hands. He’s a strange man, whimsical and melancholy at the same time. Sigurd can see why Matthias gets along with him. 

It goes south in the winter. 

Most of the rodents in the woods around their house, and even the wider village, can’t be found. And despite Matthias’s offers, Sigurd refuses to drink from him. 

He regrets that when he falls asleep one night and wakes up with Emil’s cat, dead in his hands. 

Andrei had told him, _If you let yourself get too hungry, you’ll go into something that’s basically like a mixture of a psychotic episode and sleepwalking_. 

The cat is small in death, with only two perfect puncture marks in its neck for injuries. Sigurd’s face stings from scratches he can’t remember getting, and his eyes sting with tears the longer he stares at the poor thing. 

“What the fuck did you do to her?!” 

“I’m sorry.” 

Most of it is blurry to Sigurd - he’s still thirsty. At some point Matthias comes downstairs, awakened by Emil’s screaming. 

“Emil, he -” Matthias breaks off when Emil interrupts him. 

“The walls aren’t that thick, do you think I don’t know what happened?! I don’t give a shit what you two are, I literally do not care what you kill outside, but Maleen was my fucking cat and I loved her more than anything!” Emil shrieks.

He pulls the cat’s body from Sigurd’s paralyzed arms and slams the backdoor. Matthias watches as he retrieves a shovel from the shed and starts digging, not once putting down his beloved cat. 

“I’m going to leave,” Sigurd says finally, still having not moved from where he awoke. He only moves his fingers, flexing them open and closed into fists. 

Matthias closes his eyes. “Where will you go?” 

“Dunno,” Sigurd replies, folding in on himself. “Anywhere but here. I can’t stay here with a brother who hates me and a boyfriend who I know is going to age and die when I stay the same.” 

Matthias stares behind him, through the window to where Emil is still digging. “I’ll take care of him. Get ‘im another cat, when he’s ready.” Then, he looks at Sigurd, stern and regretful all at once. “You should’ve drank from me.” 

Sigurd closes his eyes slowly, and nods.

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT 1/29/2021: changed some stuff to reflect earlier installments of _human concepts_ , although since this is written third person limited, there may still be some (purposeful) contradictions :]


End file.
